notes.

from him. The only material alteration which I have made upon it has been to introduce the notes which stood at the end in the body of the work, partly as portions of the text, and partly as footThe reason of this is, that in their original form they greatly offended my ideas of propriety and symmetry, as no reason could be well assigned for their existing in the shape of an appendix, except the arbitrary regulation of the programme. It was proper, perhaps, to conform to that regulation in the first edition, which was more strictly an academical publication; but in the second, which is my own affair, it is but right that the notes should appear where they tell most forcibly. I think you will agree with me, when you see the proofs, that they add greatly to the effect of the Essay, inserted in their proper place. I have subjoined translations to all the classical quotations,-and, altogether, I hope we shall be able to make the second really an improved edition.”

"Meanwhile I am becoming thoroughly rusticated. I have learned to bridle and saddle, and put up my own pony,-to throw a line with some degree of lightness and verisimilitude,-to shoot hares and rabbits, which is all that the game-laws will allow at present, to rise early,-to talk Scotch in

some sort of fashion,-and to do a world of things, which I hope will enable me to become in due time a most accomplished hobnail. The spring has been long delayed this year, but it is now bursting out into exquisite beauty. The cuckoo and the swallow arrived some days ago'; and on May morning I found a lizard come out to bask in the first sun of summer. What irrepressible gayety does not a spring in the country force into the heart! The whole creation alive and exulting in joy together,― vernal delight and joy, able to drive all sadness but despair!'-I am afraid I am enjoying myself too much to be improving. I have read almost nothing since I came here, though surrounded with a noble library. There is one book of serious reading, however, which I have perused with extreme delight, and which I would recommend to you as full of the subtlest and most masterly thought,-Dr Price's Dissertations. I would almost rank it next to Butler's Analogy in that department of literature. What have you been doing lately; and what are your present plans? Do write to me as soon and fully as possible, and as much in the old style. I know not any thing that should make our mutual intercourse less free and unreserved than it was of old. I believe every one who lives long enough must lay his account with losing that freshness and sharpness of feeling which makes the first friendships and loves of youth so delightful. But that the decay of sincerity should

necessarily attend the decline of fervour, or that the staid and rational attachment of maturer minds should not be equal in value to their earlier glow of affection, I do not perceive. I don't doubt-though I do not recollect instances at present-that there may have been puerilities in our ancient friendship, which nowadays we should feel to be ridiculous; but I hope it is possible to be confidential friends without being sentimental boys. In the last letter I had from you, you spoke of the renewal of our friendship: I ought to have answered directly to that point at the time; but I recollect I could not bring myself at the moment to think that a renewal was necessary. I never had allowed myself to think that it was interrupted. I hope there is nothing in our circumstances or characters at present that should prevent its fullest continuance, or, if you please, its most cordial renewal."

"I have already stated, I think, to some of our common friends, how I am more and more attracted by the life of a country minister the nearer I behold it, a real country minister, I mean, with farmers and cottagers for his parishioners. It is in these circumstances, I think, that a minister works upon the souls of his people with least entanglement and greatest purchase; while he possesses, at the same time, con

siderable advantages in the cultivation of his own personal religion. His time is so perfectly under his own control; his attention is so little distracted by the bustle of affairs; his official duties are so holy, and his natural recreations are so simple and pure: the country, too, is so full of God, and the Bible is so full of the country, that religion comes to him through a thousand inlets, and adorned with a thousand associations which no city can supply. Yet even the most favourable situations of human life have their dangers and their temptations. The besetting sin of ministers in the country is indolence. The repose of nature and of life by which they are surrounded is apt to creep over their faculties and their emotions."

No. 39.

"MY DEAR

"Hensol, August 6, 1828. I have just finished the collection of quotations connected with your Geography, which I take the present opportunity of transmitting to Edinburgh. I believe you will find them somewhat more voluminous than you wished; but in this species of compilation it costs less trouble to blot than to add. I am persuaded the occupation has been very profitable to myself, and I hope it may prove some saving of labour to you.

"Every thing here goes on as of old, except that, as the Oxford term approaches, we are reading rather harder than before. Lord, who is at home for

the vacation, spent a day or two at Hensol this week. He describes Christ Church as at present a very studious place. He represents a nobleman's reading six hours a-day as no unusual occurrence.

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"I hear from my mother, that she had the good fortune of travelling with you to Biggar, and that on alighting you inquired the way to the schoolhouse. I hope you will be cautious in such expeditions, for there are a good many teachers of the last century still alive; and some of them-especially down in Galloway here-are as fierce as the old wasps of Aristophanes against the treasonous and pestilent innovator who said that lawsuits were not expedient. I shall be somewhat anxious to hear of your safe deliverance from the dangers of the 19th instant, when, I think, you spoke of venturing, unarmed, into the midst of the swarm. I hope you will find time to let me hear from you, as there seems no chance of our meeting face to face in Galloway."

No. 40.

"Hensol, September 17, 1828.

"MY DEAR I was very happy to receive your letter, as I began to think all my correspondents were forgetting me; and happier still, on per using it, to find the very substantial proofs which its contents afforded of the kind interest you take in my welfare. I had just received a letter from my mother, nearly to the same effect with yours, probably